I get a lot of requests for interviews in Naija which I gracefully decline simply because I feel most of them just want to discuss watered down topics like marriage this or boyfriend that. While I do not mind per say, I also think until something big happens, the topic is stale. Like wait for it to happen and then ask me. Asking me the same question for over 4 years does nothing for me nor the reader. I understand what it is to be in the public eye, I also comprehend fully that you win some and you lose some so that is not why we are here. We are here because some things need to be addressed like.. seriously

Well, I decided to do an interview with a popular Naija News Paper (This Day). Reason being, the person who interviewed me, I know well and I also understand and respect his style and even if he did ask personal questions, the interview would still have fresh content.

So fast forward to after the interview was done. I did a full 2 to 4 pages of content that I felt had a lot of good key points in it. There were parts that would motivate and parts that would refresh your memory about my work, plus other positive things but guess what, when the 1 million naija blogs we have out there decided to pick it up. They all focused on the same topic, -Marriage. Trust my twitter followers to start CC’ing me. Some even went as far as putting a VERY FALSE headline that had nothing to do with the interview and contained words from THEIR IMAGINATION. lol, but ill address that part later. Yall should know me by now, I am not the ignore it type. I am intelligent enough to address anything related to me, and most times, if I feel strongly about it, I do. My Life!. lol

You all can’t face the same direction guys, common!. Do not get me wrong, I cover pop culture stories and know what sells but I also cover pop culture stories in a country where there is an abundance of variety. Even with this fact, I still take extra time to add my own flair to each story. In America, you can find a website/blog for almost anything/topic so there is diversity. There is balance. This is not the case in Naija. Now, I could be wrong, but i feel most Naija blogs all cover the same story/topics, Some do not even bother covering the story, they copy and paste from another blog word for word – headline for headline -and the beat continues. The say variety is the spice of life..Flip it to reflect your personality a bit no?

Anytime I give an interview that I feel has a lot of great content and a lot to work with, I get very mind boggled when I see that the only thing ALL OF THEM (and trust me I mean ALL because I am yet to see one that was different), see fit to use is the watered down content. Even the Female Blogs with the exception of a few like Bella and Olori who seem to be the only female owned blogs who balance stories about me.

See, I just want to put this little memo out there to the Naija blogs. I appreciate that you take interest in my life. I do, but my life is very simple, there is no big interesting scandalous things about it (well not lately haha). The interesting part of me that I can share is related to my work, and maybe my occasional opinionated rants. If it is boring, leave the story alone and move on to something more interesting, then wait for a day something interesting comes up so you can can use it. At this stage I am tempted to start sending selfies of myself to blogs so the content about me isn’t always the same topic over an over and over again (OMG I just fell asleep even writing about it lol). I have a weekly Podcast where I rant all day, post that. Or if the marriage/love thing is your only point of call about me, simply wait for it. I won’t vex

Trust me when I say, waiting for it is better than using the same headline over and over and over and over and over again. How many times do we want to talk about Toni Payne- I will marry, Toni Payne – I want to remarry- Toni Payne – When I will remarry.. really? seriously? Google sef is tired of indexing it. lol. Im kinda tired of complaining but they say, ask and ye shall receive so I am asking nicely, pweety please with a cherry on top, kindly lay off the marry marry headlines for me until I actually do it. Na beg I dey beg.. Ewooo!.

If I were a blog, I wouldn’t even use that as a story for me because I would feel my readers wouldn’t find it appealing. Unless of course Toni Payne was spotted with a new sexy looking boo or made public a new boo.. eheeennn now that could potentially be juicy (although I do not see why but I digress)

Every single blog that carried my This Day story or parts of it, from the headlines I have seen, no disrespect but If I were a reader, I wouldn’t even click on it because to me it is stale much, snoozeville. There is more to THIS woman than that!..

Now let me address that ones who outright just used a fake headline talking bout I still want to marry so and so. Una no get work I swear down. Yall need to stop misleading your readers. You think you are making me look bad but the reality is that you are discrediting yourself from good readers because if someone does click on yalls ratchet headline and see that the story doesn’t even match the headline, or see that I said no such thing, you lose credibility. Duh!. It’s not brain science guys. Get it together. Again I will state clearly, Yall need to wake up from that particular slumber. No disrespect but naaa! I do not even know how some people even believe such in this 2014. I am Alicia Keys Brand new Me, been twirled on out of there ages ago.. Swerve!

In conclusion, creativity is a big part of success. There were 1 million and one HEADLINES I could have used for that interview that would have still sounded interesting. It’s a competitive world out there, you can’t keep beating the same old dead horse and in turn making me write epistles about that dead horse. Give me something else to rant about o.. lol.. It’s boring and I doubt it will get you more readers!. The key is to grow right? Yeah!

Also, here is a little FYI to those that are easily sold on headlines. See, headlines are meant to draw you into the story. If you simply read the headline without moving on to the story to read the content and come up with your own conclusion, you have easily sold yourself into a lost generation. Yes, I have seen this happen waaaaay too many times, people will read the headline alone and conclude without bothering to read the story. If this is you, remember my quote ”

This generation of Naijas need to start to read to comprehend. If not your future will be sold to the highest bidder with your approval.

With all that said, I bid you a wonderful Sunday and if you care to read it. Here is my FULL INTERVIEW with This Day Newspapers.. It is well.. oh and if blog decides to lift my words, do the right thing and do not misquote me or act like you did not get it from here..PEACE and HAIR GREASE!

18 Replies to “Let me Address My Issue with A Lot of Naija Blogs – a little MEMO to Yall..”

Toni you are a beautiful, intelligent woman. Only God knows why he led you to that man who brought all this on you. It is well, God will give you the flesh of your flesh. We are rooting for you all the way from Ondo

This is off topic, I wanted to mention that you are a good writer. Those people are not bloggers, they should come to America to see what blogging is about. They are just out of work youth trying to make ends meet so they do not know how to be professional.

Tony, you bring up a valid point which I myself have noticed. That is the trend of Nigerian female owned blogs who use their platforms to bring other females down. I know what prompted this writeup, ironically I read the headline on a blog owned by a female and it did cross my mind that the particular blogger has never carried positive news about you. If not for the fact that I follow you on twitter, I would have thought you as shallow. Maybe this is the impression they want their readers to have about you. We readers are guilty as well because we patronize mostly these sites that tout as you call it watered down content but I as a reader balance it by following those I am interested in on twitter or facebook. Those telling you to ignore are wrong, if people keep ignoring, they will not buckle up. Kudos. I am a big fan.

I don’t even bother clicking on their rubbish. I tell myself that I follow you on fb so why waste maybe 5 minutes of my life they’ll never ever compensate me for? This blog is one of the MANY best things you’ve done in a long time, including Zion hehe!!! I admire you a lot, keep it up namesake!